Today we’ve pitted the Capital One Venture Rewards Card versus his brother, the Capital One VentureOne Rewards card. The core difference between these two credit cards is that the Capital One Venture card offers more rewards, but comes with an annual fee. As you’ll see below, there are certain cases in which it is better to have the Venture card, and other times when the VentureOne card outperforms.

Boy, that Cain guy sure could use a shave.

Key Similarities Between Capital One Venture and VentureOne Credit Cards

Both require excellent credit.

Both provide a 10,000 point bonus if you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months after card approval.

Miles never expire, nor are there any mileage caps.

Neither CapOne credit card has a foreign transaction fee.

Key Differences Between Capital One Venture and Capital One VentureOne Cards

With the CapOne Venture card, you’ll earn 2 miles on every dollar of spend, versus only 1.25 miles with the CapOne VentureOne card.

The Cap1 Venture Card has a $59 annual fee, waived the first year; the Capital One VentureOne card does not have an annual fee.

So there you have it, just a couple of key differences between these two brotherly cards.

When Does the Capital One Venture Card Outperform the CapOne Venture One Card?

This is certainly the million dollar question for this post, and all we have to do is channel our inner Einstein to answer it. So, the basic choice here is whether earning 1.25 miles per dollar without an annual fee is better than earning 2 miles per dollar with a $59 annual fee (waived 1st year).

High Level Findings On The CapitalOne Venture/Venture One Debate

If you plan to hold either card less than a year, then the Venture Rewards card will always outperform Venture One, since you won’t pay an annual fee on either, and the rewards are higher on the Venture Rewards Card (sign-up bonuses are also the same, so that’s a wash).

For any given year after year 1, as a general rule, you’ll need to spend $660 or more per month ($7,920 per year) to make it worth paying the annual $59 fee for the Venture Rewards Card. Since Venture Rewards earns an additional 0.75 miles per dollar compared to Venture One, you’ll see that 0.75 miles * $7,920 spend per year * $0.01 value per mile = $59—exactly the amount of the annual fee). Fancy that.

At What Monthly Spend Level Does it Make Sense to Own Venture Rewards Versus Venture One Rewards?

Monthly Spend

Hold Card for 3 Years

Hold Card for 5 Years

Hold Card for 10 Years

Spend $450/month

Cards earn the same

Venture One earns $33 more

Venture One earns $126 more

Spend $525/month

Venture Rewards earns $23 more

Card earn the same

Venture One earns $59 more

Spend $590/month

Venture Rewards earns $41 more

Venture Rewards earns $30 more

Cards earn the same

Spend $660/month

Venture Rewards earns $59 more

Venture Rewards earns $59 more

Venture Rewards earns $59 more

Spend $1,500/month

Venture Rewards earns $287 more

Venture Rewards earns $439 more

Venture Rewards earns $819 more

Closing Thoughts on Our Capital One Head-To-Head Rivalry

So you can see some interesting mathematical behaviors here. At monthly spends of less than $660 or so, the Venture One card will sooner or later outperform the Venture Rewards card, because the incremental 0.75 miles per dollar of spend aren’t generating enough rewards to offset the $59 annual fee.

However, once spend passes about $660 per month, incremental rewards more than offset the annual fee, and as spend gets higher and higher from that point, Venture Rewards really destroys Venture One.